This invention is concerned with artificial Christmas trees, especially those designed to be suspended in the air after assembly yet collapsible into a smaller package for shipping or storage.
There are many known designs of artificial Christmas trees that may be collapsed into a smaller size.
Various forms of collapsible artificial Christmas trees designed to be suspended from above are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,906,869 (Thomas); U.S. Pat. No. 4,968,541 (McCrory); U.S. Pat. No. 5,486,386 (Rovsek); U.S. Pat. No. 3,677,867 (Westlund); Ser. No. D408,319 (Byers); and Ser. No. D256,223 (Byun). Each of these designs collapses into a circularly shaped arrangement having the same diameter as the bottom of the tree. A related design, shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,106,228 (Gibrich), is a collection of flat individual sections, and thus it disassembles into the shape and size of a single section.
The design shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,857,748 (Thomann) is collapsible to some extent but intended to be mounted on a door or wall. A complicated design incorporating lights is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,415,953 (Shepherd).
The invention is an artificial collapsible Christmas tree designed to be suspended in the air during use, and collapsed into a smaller package for shipping or storage. The package need not be not significantly longer than the diameter of the base of the tree, and generally the container may be a bag, tube or box that is not particularly large in diameter or cross section compared to the package length. This packaging provides a definite advantage to those who sell the invention, as well as those who purchase it and store it between uses.
The parts include a rope (or cord or string) having upper and lower ends; vertical members representing tree trunk segments; and horizontal members representing tree branches. The trunk and branch members are drilled through to permit threading the rope vertically through the center of each trunk segment and through a point centered on the length and width (or diameter) of each branch segment. Trunk segments may (or may not) decrease in length and/or girth from tree bottom to top. They are placed below and between branches with the uppermost trunk member representing the leader of the tree. Branch members progress from maximum length and girth at the bottom of the tree to minimum length and girth at the top. Each branch of lesser size is placed alternatively, from bottom to top, with a trunk segment; or, optionally, equally sized branches may be in clusters, similarly reducing in size from bottom to top. Clustered branches rest upon each other, with the bottom branch of each cluster supported by the trunk segment below.
The bottom end of the rope is knotted or, optionally, secured to an object such is a small block, sphere, disc or other such item resulting in a restriction larger than the hole in the bottom trunk section or branch. Such restriction must be adequate to support the weight of the assembled (and decorated, if applicable) tree. The upper end of the rope is used to attach the tree overhead. Typically, the upper end terminates with a loop or a ring or similar device, which can be slipped over a hook or other hardware device secured to the supporting overhead element from which the assembled tree is to be hung. The length of the rope above the tree element can be varied to accommodate varying heights of supporting elements, so that the tree can relate to the surface under it as the user finds desirable.
Once the rope has been threaded through all the trunk segments and branch members, and the upper end terminated as described above, the completed assembly may be converted into a relatively small package. This is done by letting the rope go slack enough to loosely separate the members while laying the loosened assembly on a horizontal surface; then rolling the assembly into a compact bundle which may be packaged for shipping, or re-packaged or bound for storage by the user.
The user may lay the un-packaged or unbound bundle on a horizontal surface, unroll the assembly, attach the rope upper end to a supporting overhead element, then rotate the branches so the ends are more or less uniformly spread around the tree outer circumference. The assembly is thus suspended and arranged into the shape of a traditional conical Christmas tree. Once erected, the tree could be decorated, if so desired, by the user.